Working in Project Management means dealing with issues; they go hand-in-hand. However I find that often times we manage issues the same way we manage our project plans and they need to be managed differently. When there is an issue it requires a greater sense of urgency and diligence and therefore I usually do the following items…
- Identify the key actions/next steps with owners and dates
- Get the key resources required (team member, vendor, etc) focused on solving the problem
- Set up daily stand-up meetings to discuss progress towards those actions and any findings to close the issue
- Send daily messages with status. Helps to let everyone know status as well as reminder who owns next steps
What I find is that when projects don’t follow a level of diligence like this, there is a lot of churn including lack of clarity on ownership, spinning on discussions, and not having the right people focused on solving the problem. Turning up the diligence will allow everyone to be clear on the steps and who is doing what so we can be a well oiled machine focusing on solving the problem.
Tagged: Issues
